It keeps you up at night, it occupies your thoughts, it leaves you with no other choice. You must pursue it.

But you’re not moving.

You hit a road block.

In short, you’re stuck.

Because you have a passion that means so much to you, not taking action towards it can feel lousy.

And if you’re like me, you’re probably using your stuckness as an invitation to self-criticize.

But there’s a better way to approach being stuck in the molasses, and that’s to uncover the truth.

The truth is sometimes hard to consider. What’s the reason why you’re stuck? What do you fear? What are you trying to avoid?

These are tough questions, but asking them will help you to get moving again on your path to pursuing your passion.

The following are 6 reasons why you may be stuck and what you can do to free yourself and start taking inspired action in pursuit of your passion:

1. You’re burned out.

You have a day job, you have bambinos, you have a lot on your plate, and well, you’re exhausted. In sort, you’re out of bandwidth with no extra oomph to pursue your passion.

Your stuckness is telling you to take some time to rest and recharge. Get away from your computer, go for a walk, go for a swim, or connect with nature. Do something fun that makes you laugh and fills you with energy, or take a nap. Give yourself a break to re-energize.

2. You’ve suffered a Lack & Attach Attack

The passion pursuit business is tough. It’s taking all of your blood, sweat, and tears just to break even. So you wake up in the morning thinking about all the things you lack, “Why don’t I have more clients, subscribers, followers, resources, creativity, drive, etc, etc?”

You’re also attached to the outcomes you’re hoping to achieve. Instead of using your goals as motivation, you’re attached to achieving them, thus not allowing your best work to come through.

To recover from a Lack & Attach Attack, spend some time each day thinking about all the things you do have (it’s always more than you think). A gratitude journal works great for this.

3. You’re ignoring signs from your body

Your body is a sophisticated machine that is constantly giving you raw, honest feedback regarding what it likes and doesn’t. But very often, we neglect to listen to the messages being sent to us by our body because we’re distracted by the voices in our head telling us that we’re not good enough or that we’ll never reach our dreams.

For every action you contemplate taking, your body will react with a physical sensation. Every body reacts differently, but very often your body will feel expansive, light, or free if you’re going in the right direction, and tense, constricted, or tight if you’re going in the wrong.

So check in to see what you’re body is saying. If an an action is making you feel constricted, you’re probably trying to avoid doing it. Instead, identify an action to take that feels light, free, and expansive. Then, don’t hesitate, hold back, or wait for a better moment, take it.

4. You’re delaying your happiness

You have a vision of what you want your life to look like, but it’s not yet here. So you’re frustrated, and consequently, you’re not moving.

You don’t need your goals to be achieved to live the life of your dreams. You can start today, right now. You do this by identifying the core values that are most important to you and the feelings you want to experience on your journey and start living by those values and feelings right now.

Values are what you want to do, and feelings are the emotions you want to experience. Thus, if creativity is a value that is important to you, and inspiration is a feeling you want to experience on your journey, then start creating something today that is inspiring to you. And if going to a yoga class or hitting a museum is a creative act for you that brings forth feelings of inspiration, add more of those activities into your routine.

5. You’re not taking responsibility for your passion

When you’re pursuing your passion and hit a road block, it’s great to blame others.

“My partner just isn’t supporting me, so I’m feeling as though I can’t continue.”

“The market is too saturated, and it’s too difficult to attract new clients.”

“If only I had more time, I’d really be able to go after my dreams.”

The truth is that it’s all poppycock. When you think these thoughts, you’re playing the role of the victim. When you play the victim you’re ceding all of your power over to the victim police. Don’t do it.

You may truly and honestly have a partner who doesn’t support your vision, and that’s OK. Have daily or weekly conversations with him or her about how much your passion means to you and fill them in on your progress and struggles. If they still aren’t 100% on board, again, that’s OK. They don’t need to be.

You keep doing your thing. Stay true to your vision, your core values, the emotions you want to experience, and your power to make it happen.

6. The action steps you want to take are too big

If your dream is to end global illiteracy, then that’s a perfect vision. Big dreams keep you inspired and motivated.

But when you’re considering how to make this dream a reality, don’t start with the action step of, “Convince Congress this is a good idea.” Start with the action step of, “10 minutes of research on illiteracy in Canada.” Make your actions bite-sized, tiny, and so easy they’d be silly not to do them.

If you’re not sure if your action item is too big or not, then check in with the body. If the body feels expansive, then execute. If the body feels constricted, then cut your action in half.

To quote Amelia Earheart, “The only way to do is just to do it.”

Being stuck when pursuing your passion is a real thing. It doesn’t mean you’re lazy, aren’t committed, or should give up. It means there’s something off. It’s not failure, it’s only feedback.

Use this feedback to free yourself.

You free yourself from stuckness by taking easy, bite-sized actions that feel good in the body, are in line with your core values, and bring about the feelings you want to experience on your journey.

Allyson Scammell is a Life and Career Coach who helps busy people to discover and pursue the things they’re most passionate about. She loves taking inspired action and believes there’s always enough time in the day to pursue your passions. Learn more at shantipax.com, and connect on Facebook or Twitter.